Art Dolla, attorney and patent editor, chairman of the Heinlein Foundation, and entrepreneur of the space flight company Excalibur-Elmaz, tells in an interview with the science website that the Russian spaceship that the company purchased and which was loaned to the Medatech Museum, is registered on the Isle of Man as a yacht, due to the fact that there is no precedent for registering a private spaceship
Exhibition "The Guide to the Galaxy" which was opened at the Meadetech Museum in Haifa includes a lot of space equipment loaned to it by the Heinlein Foundation and the private collection of the foundation's chairman, Art (Arthur) Dolla.
Dolla is also the founder of the space flight company Excalibur-Elmaz, and the main exhibit in the exhibition is a Russian Elmaz spacecraft, built to launch humans, and has flown into space twice (albeit unmanned). Dolla's vision, as he presented in an interview with the science website held in Haifa, is to fill the spacecraft with Israeli scientific experiments and fly it into space, this time also without astronauts.
By the way, the control equipment in the spacecraft is the original Russian equipment. According to Dolla, American export laws prohibited them from bringing in the more modern equipment they had developed. The spacecraft was designed for 15 flights into space, in contrast to Soyuz prototype spacecraft which are disposable. Additional items presented in the exhibition from Dolla's private collection - fragments of meteorites that came from the Moon and Mars.
"We competed for NASA's manned space program to fly astronauts to the space station. We reached the final and lost. We decided that with the remaining money we would launch unmanned flights. At IAC a year ago we discovered Ms. Ramon and her program with the students, if we can carry out hundreds of experiments it will be possible to expand the accessibility of the Ramon Foundation to the whole world. And I hope we can work with the Israeli industry, and use the spacecraft that is in Medatech to fly Israeli experiments. By the way, the thing that takes the most time is ordering and manufacturing the launcher. On average a year and a half." Doula says.
According to Eli Scharmeister, CEO of the MadaTech Museum, the Ramon Foundation and Rona Ramon were the ones who personally connected the museum with the Heinlein Foundation that brought the exhibits and he thanks them for that.
Excalibur has three Almaz model spacecraft, a Russian model that was developed at the same time as Soyuz and actually competed with it. In addition to the original spacecraft, which is now on display in Haifa, the company owns two other spacecraft built according to the same design, as well as a frame of a space station of the Salute model, which was supposed to be used as a hotel in space before the company was forced to abandon its vision of manned launches due to lack of budget.
Dolla also lent exhibits from his personal collection to the display, such as a space suit that the children can put their heads into and see how astronauts see their surroundings, and a model of the first satellite - Sputnik. It was Dollah's father who showed him the satellite in the sky (actually the last stage of the launch vehicle which was larger than the satellite and reflected light). "I remember we were all listening to Sputnik's triple beep beep beep. It was one of the things that attracted me to the field of space." Doula says.
But Exliber-Elmez is just one of the initiatives that Dolla is responsible for. Its sister company, Excelkiber Resources, is engaged in the design of spacecraft that will mine asteroids. "There is no reason for poverty on earth. There are enough resources in space. We are in the second decade of the 21st century, and as much as we see large technology companies around us, the big companies have not yet arisen, these will be companies that will bring resources from space. Heinlein said that all it takes is to get out of the Earth's gravity, 10 km per second, and then we are halfway to anywhere in the solar system, at least in terms of fuel consumption." Doula says.
Unlike other space enthusiasts he is not an astronomer or an engineer, he is a lawyer and patent attorney and a space enthusiast. He served as a patent editor for the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, and after his death, Heinlein's wife asked to establish the foundation that would encourage the promotion of education and private space initiatives.
According to Dola, the Heinlein Foundation, which he heads, is funded by the royalties on Heinlein's books, 90% of which belong to the foundation. The main purpose of the fund is to award prizes to entrepreneurs who have carried out private space projects. In addition, the foundation finances scholarships for Space University participants, and expects that when they succeed in their businesses, they will donate back to the foundation so that it will give the money as scholarships to the next generation of students.
About that in the next section.
